SAN ANTONIO — When the Spurs returned from Miami after dropping Games 6 and 7 of the NBA Finals to the Heat, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer wasted no time in getting to Atlanta to begin his new career as coach of the Hawks.

Hired by Atlanta during the long layover between the Spurs' four-game sweep of the Grizzlies in the Western Conference finals and the start of the Finals, Budenholzer might have been the most fortunate member of the Spurs organization, post-Finals. While everyone else agonized over the oh-so-close near-miss, Budenholzer threw himself into his new job.

“For me, it was important to just dive in and move forward with this (Hawks) group with all my energy and attention and do my best to not think about (Games 6 and 7) very often,” Budenholzer said.

“I said it a lot this summer: I think I was fortunate I had something I was really excited about and could dive into and put all my energy and all my thoughts into it. It was a good thing, put in that context.”

No pain, no missed game: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was pleasantly surprised when he got the report from the team's medical staff: Boris Diaw, who had suffered a dislocated left middle finger in Saturday's game against the Rockers, would be able to suit up against the Hawks.

Diaw said he went through about 10 minutes of yanking and pulling while a member of the team's medical staff worked to put the finger back in its socket on Saturday.

“It wasn't painful when he pulled on it,” Diaw said. “It was just when he put it back in place, just that second. Then it was all better.”

Diaw said he had no pain in the finger during the game. The tape job, he said, affected him minimally.

“It bothered me because I had two fingers stuck together,” he said. “I had four fingers instead of five, but I don't use my left hand very much anyway. Tonight I took only one dribble with the left hand.”

Diaw made 7 of 9 shots, scored 16 points and had three assists in just less than 30 minutes.

Timely and fortunate: Spurs guard Danny Green had struggled through a horrid shooting performance for more than 45 minutes Monday night, errant on each of his first six shots, but his lone basket was effective.

Releasing his shot just ahead of the 24-second buzzer, Green's 3-pointer with 2:53 remaining pushed the Spurs' lead to seven points, at 94-87, enough cushion for them to score their 16th consecutive home win over the Hawks.

“That's how basketball goes sometimes,” Green said. “You go 0 for 10 and make the last one. Lucky enough, of all the ones I shot, that was the one that dropped. All those others, I took too much time to think about them.”